British Petroleum Co. said it agreed to...

British Petroleum Co. said it agreed to sell its huge mineral interests to the international mining group RTZ Corp. and that it would buy back a large chunk of its own shares from Kuwait.London-based BP said it would sell the mining operations, minus BP Canada Inc., to RTZ for $4.4 billion or 2.4 billion pounds. By buying back 790 million of its own shares from the Kuwait Investment Office, BP will lower the Kuwait government’s stake in BP to 9.9% from 21.6%. BP said it had agreed to pay Kuwait, a major oil producer and member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, $4.50 (2.47 pounds) each for the shares. The deal was valued at about $3.56 billion.